The days before Thanksgiving generally bring good tidings for the stock market and exchange traded funds (ETFs), and Wall Street is awaiting the upcoming housing market reports, says Madlen Read for the Associated Press. This year, things might be a little different.

Right now, "optimism" is not the word of the day with investors. The idea that there could be a buying frenzy in December seems unlikely, and Wall Street expects the U.S. housing market to continue the slide through next year and possibly even 2009. Also expected are more write-downs in the fourth-quarter and it could be even larger than those in the third quarter.

Ouch.

This means that the bad news for housing and financial ETFs could very well continue. Some of those that could be feeling the pain are:

• iShares Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate (IYR), down 5.8% year-to-date
• iShares Dow Jones U.S. Homebuilders (ITB), down 52.8% year-to-date
• SPDR S&P Homebuilders (XHB), down 42.4% year-to-date
• Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF), down 4.9% year-to-date

Tags: Homebuilders, Real Estate, Sector ETFs